Ethan sat in silence for a moment. ‘You think that such sunken cities are the origin of ancient flood myths?’
‘The end of the Ice Age raised sea levels immensely as the glaciers that once covered the entire northern hemisphere receded,’ Lucy explained. ‘Any coastal cities built by advanced civilizations would have been easily swallowed by the oceans.’
‘How many are there?’
‘Dozens,’ Lucy said. ‘The Cambay Ruins off the coast of India were discovered in 2001, with artefacts such as bones, pottery and wall sections from the site dated at some nine thousand years old. The city of Yonaguni off the southern coast of Japan is at least five thousand years old and contains stepped walls and a massive pyramid about seventy feet below the surface of the sea. The walls of the city show evidence of men having working the stone and the inhabitants are believed to have been the Jomon, the first culture to have developed pottery, who lived up to twelve thousand years ago.’
‘And you are intending to go out there and search for something to support your theory,’ Ethan surmised with a wry smile.
‘That was the plan,’ Lucy admitted. ‘I’d managed to put aside some savings to fund the expedition because I knew that the museum would not support any such research. I was virtually ready to book flights when the Russians appeared.’
Ethan thought for a moment.
‘The Defense Intelligence Agency confiscated the remains that you found in Israel and could hardly have failed to examine them themselves. What you think the chances are that they will have discovered the same things that you have?’
Lucy inclined ahead to one side as she thought for a moment. ‘It depends. The DIA have never approached me and asked for any advice or even what I was researching that led me to find the remains. They have one piece of the puzzle, and it is possible even that they will find the message in the DNA, but what the hell they’ll be able to do with it I don’t know. The problem is that the message in itself is useless without a means of decoding or deciphering it.’
‘You didn’t say anything about deciphering,’ Ethan pointed out.
‘Ah,’ Lucy said, suddenly excited as she returned to her theme. ‘Now that’s the really interesting bit. You see, the message in the DNA of the bones we found in Israel is only one half of the message. We have no idea what language or dialect might be used, although we would hope for mathematics or perhaps even binary code, something universal that all advanced species would presumably recognise. But that’s not the reason I’m here.’
‘It’s not?’
‘No,’ Lucy replied, her face falling suddenly as though she had just recalled why she had journeyed across the globe to find him. ‘Have you ever heard of Saethre — Chotzen syndrome, or Hydrocephalus?’
‘Never,’ Ethan admitted. ‘What are they?’
‘They’re rare congenital disorders that cause the human skull to deform or fail to expand in the correct way as a child grows,’ Lucy explained. ‘Their origins lie in some kind of genetic mutation, and I’ve been working on the DNA from the bone to figure out if those mutations come from human genes modified in ancient history.’
Ethan raised an eyebrow. ‘Seriously? You think that some modern illnesses may be connected to those remains we found in Israel?
‘If a species altered our DNA in some way by breeding with humans, then it’s entirely possible that in doing so they created a new line of illnesses.’ Lucy pulled a photograph from her pocket and handed it to Ethan. ‘This is Bethany O’Learey, from River Grove, Chicago. She is two years old and is suffering from the syndrome.’
Ethan looked at the image of a smiling, bright eyed little girl with rosy cheeks and soft brown hair. Her entire skull was encased in some sort of metallic device.
‘It’s a brace that is holding her head together after cranial surgery,’ Lucy explained, seeing Ethan’s reaction. ‘But the illness has other side effects, including heart issues, spinal fusing and renal problems. She’s dying, Ethan, and I’ve been watching it happen for the past year.’
Ethan looked up at Lucy as he put the pieces together for himself. ‘You’re looking for the cure.’
‘I’m looking for the genetic material of any human being who might have been a hybrid with the alien species, that is fresh enough to extract DNA from and search for the gene that causes these illnesses,’ Lucy said slowly. ‘My guess is that someone, somewhere once carried the origin of this and many other diseases. That person, whoever they were, would have been extreme the important to those who followed them. Their remains would quite likely have been preserved extremely well, perhaps well enough to extract the DNA required to decipher the cure to this illness and perhaps save Bethany’s life.’
Ethan considered the ancient cities to which Lucy had preferred to.
‘And you want to go and find the oldest possible site of an ancient civilization in the hopes of discovering the remains that you’re looking for.’
‘You’re quite bright really when you try hard,’ Lucy managed to smile.
For a moment Ethan was reminded of Lopez’s snarky wit. He shook the memory off and glanced at the clock above the fireplace. It was already after eight, the Highlands outside black as night: perfect for moving unobserved.
‘This cottage is compromised,’ Ethan decided. ‘There’s not much point in me sitting here waiting for the next bunch of gun wielding goons to turn up, and certainly no sense in you waiting around. Does Rachel have any idea where you are?’
‘None,’ Lucy admitted. ‘After what happened in Israel I decided to keep her on a need-to-know basis.’
‘I know how that feels,’ Ethan replied.
‘She thinks I’m abroad on another dig, tucked safely away in Europe, which in some respects is true.’
Ethan rubbed his forehead and sighed heavily as he realized that he could hardly now walk away from Lucy when it was clear that she was intending to go straight for the oldest human civilization she could find. Although Ethan did not have an idea of who had attacked them, and could not even be entirely certain of why, what he was sure of was that they would continue to pursue Lucy. If they now had her most treasured files, then it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out that they would follow the same leads and would likely end up in the same places.
‘They’re going to follow you,’ Ethan pointed out. ‘Whether it’s the Russians or somebody else, somebody wants to know what you know and they’re not going to give up.’
Lucy’s smile faded again.
‘That means I’ll need some kind of protection,’ she replied, ‘somebody who has experience of working in these kinds of conditions, somebody upon whom I can rely.’
‘I’m not in this business anymore,’ Ethan pointed out.
‘I’ve never been in this business,’ Lucy replied. ‘I’m supposed to quietly dig up fossils and prepare them for museums, not run around the Scottish Highlands getting shot at. I can’t do this on my own. You’ve spent the last year hiding away from everything — if getting away from the rest of the world is what you want, I can take you to places that people have not seen for thousands of years.’
‘You’ve got a destination already?’
Lucy nodded and clearly did not need her files to inform him of her plans.
‘The site in Israel where we found the remains is associated with ancient tribes that lived in the area during that period, and during the work I found numerous images depicted on rock faces, including engravings. I had photographs of them all, but they were in the bag we lost. However, it’s not hard to show you.’